CHID 250: Special Topics: Introduction To The History Of Ideas

Examines a different subject or problem from a comparative framework. Satisfies the Gateways major/minor requirement. Offered: AWSp.

Introduction to Postcolonial Literature and Theory

Once part of the global British Empire and now officially independent, countries like Kenya, India, Pakistan, Jamaica, Barbados, and Zimbabwe have performed and negotiated their break from colonialism in sometimes different, sometimes similar ways. Our investigation of postcolonial literatures and theory will help us better understand: --historical colonial power and anticolonial conflict --present day cultural legacies of imperialism in the recently independent postcolony --who has power and privilege over others and why --the role of travel, diaspora and globalization.

We will read literature from the postcolonial world, screen films, dabble in theory, and try to piece together how our world works now and how that came to be. This class expects participants to openly- and hopefully enthusiastically- engage with issues of gender, sexuality, race, feminism, patriarchy, globalization, westernization, class, privilege, power and representation.